search

esdalmaijer / PyGaze

an open-source, cross-platform toolbox for minimal-effort programming of eye tracking experiments
www.pygaze.org
GNU General Public License v3.0
670 stars 211 forks source link

OpenSesame pygaze_log item: Remove option to log all variables #132

Open esdalmaijer opened 4 years ago

esdalmaijer commented 4 years ago

The danger of including all variables is lag in recordings, and files that look like the one linked in this thread on the forum. In addition, there is a risk that users think "log all variables" means that the logger will do the work for them, and thus it could inspire people to not implement the logging of triggers at significant events.

The danger of NOT including all variables is that a user didn't log a variable that they should have logged for their analysis. (Although it is very likely that this is still included in the regular log file, so it's unlikely to go completely missing.)

Both are risks particularly for users who don't really know what they're doing, for example because they are new to eye tracking. I think the lowest-risk option is to not offer the option to log all variables.

Before implementing this, I would appreciate some more input. @smathot, what do you think?

smathot commented 4 years ago

I think the default behavior should be to log all variables, because that's what OpenSesame normally does also (in the regular .csv data file), so that's what people will assume. However, I see now that there's a bit of an inconsistency with potential for confusion: The default behavior of pygaze_log is to not log all variables. However, this option is enabled in the eye-tracking template.

So I think we should actually enable this option by default in the plugin. But I also see your point about people overestimating what the plugin will do, i.e. sending triggers. Perhaps add a small label by way of warning?